Karen Landman’s Talk a Success and CCGP Hold Fundraiser
Sorry for the delay in posting – the Karen Landman talk ran late into Thursday evening and the blog posting totally slipped our groups mind.
Karen’s talk was great! There were a lot of faces new to the school of Lebel at the lecture which is great news for those who are working towards a community garden being implemented on campus: it means that there is a lot of interest by community members in seeing this project really succeed. It was great to also see families at the event – involving children in gardens like this is a great way to encourage future generations to consider different approaches in the processes surrounding food production and distribution PLUS it’s a lot of fun for them to get involved, too.Our urban agriculture group was lucky enough to have Karen sit down with us for a little Q & A where we could pick her brain and utilize her extensive knowledge. We discussed possible bylaws we’d need to take into consideration for the garden and ways to achieve knowledge on bylaws that pertain to community infrastructures (plant sizing bylaws, ways to ensure pedestrian/car views aren’t blocked, etc). We discussed ways to have a “locate” done on the property by the city to know where water, sewage, fiber optic lines , etc are located. We discussed the benefits of obtaining the history of the land from the Land Registry Office to know what was present on these sites over since the City of Windsor was founded a couple of hundred years ago. We also talked about production goals and ways to achieve more community involvement and we discussed about the three important elements to community gardens: the social, economic, and political and ways to integrate all three of these into the work currently being done.
Aside from answering our questions she also provided some great examples of other types of gardens that have been very successful so we could possibly gain perspective from their success (facilities like “STOP” in Toronto, Ontario). Overall, I’d have to say the experience to sit and chat with Karen, as well as listen to her lecture on the possibilities of Urban Agriculture has proved to be invaluable. She was also willing to become a part of the Urban Agriculture’s directory in case we have any more questions or need her assistance in the future.
In addition to Karen’s chat, we were also informed of a fundraiser being put on by the Campus Community Garden Project (CCGP) at The Green Bean Cafe on Friday March 26, 2010 starting at 6:30 p.m.
The fundraiser includes dinner and entertainment and will have Guest Speakers from The Georgia Street Community Garden in Detroit, Michigan.
All profits from the event support the CCGP and help achieve the ultimate goal of implementing a community garden on the campus of The University of Windsor. For more information contact Rita Haase (haaser@uwindsor.ca) or call 519.564.6924.It should be a really fun event for a really great cause.
